Virtual Processing Chains

1. A computer system, comprising: an operating system that includes a first device driver, a second device driver and a third device driver, each of the device drivers being configured to communicate directly with the other device drivers by a software interface; a hardware layer that includes a first input/output device controlled by the first device driver, a second input/output device controlled by the second device driver, and a third input/output device controlled by the third device driver, wherein the first input/output device is configured to transmit data to the first device driver, the first device driver is configured to transmit data directly to the second device driver, and the second device driver is configured to transmit data to the second input/output device; an application program configured to issue a bridge command to establish the direct communication between any two of the first, second and third device drivers; and a data buffer for storing all data transmitted between the first, second and third device drivers.

2. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the first input/output device transmits data to the first device driver in response to a request from the operating system.

3. The computer system of claim 1 , further comprising an application layer that includes an application program, wherein the operating system is configured to communicate with the application program.

4. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the first input/output device transmits data to the first device driver in response to a request from the application program.

5. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the first device driver is configured to process the data received from the first input/output device and to transmit processed data directly to the second device driver.

6. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware layer further includes a third input/output device, and the operating system further includes a third device driver configured to control the third input/output device and to transmit data to the third input/output device.

7. The computer system of claim 6 , wherein the second device driver is configured to transmit data directly to the third device driver.

8. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein the first device driver is configured to transmit data directly to the third device driver.

9. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the data transmitted from the first device driver to the second device driver comprises a frame buffer handle.

10. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the second device driver accesses data from a frame buffer, the accessed data being of a type associated with the second device driver, and transmits the data to the second input/output device.

11. A computing device as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of the device drivers comprises a software handle comprising a data structure to identify the related input/output device, the application program issuing the bridge command to establish communication between the handles of the drivers.

12. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the first input/output device is a network interface card, the first device driver is a network device driver, the second input/output device is an audio interface card, the second device driver is an audio device driver, the third input/output device is a video interface card, the third device driver is a video device driver, and the network interface card is configured to request data from a network and to transmit the requested data to the network device driver in response to a command from the operating system, causing a first context switch.

13. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the data requested from the network is multimedia data, and the network device driver is configured to decode the multimedia data into audio data and video data, to transmit the audio data directly to the audio device driver and to transmit the video data directly to the video device driver, a second context switch occurring when the requested data has been processed and transmitted.